I really hate paperwork. Really I am sure that everyone does. It is mundane and painful and just seems to sap the creativity right out of you. The words drone must in some way have originated with paperwork. Zombie too for that matter. And maybe just maybe asylum.
That being said I am trying to tie up all the loose ends of a classroom. Permanent records, orders, portfolios, reports. The looming bureaucratic end of teaching. Sometimes I want to quit my job and take a position in some rural school house in a distant land that would allow me to teach, to care, to have fun and to help my children grow.
Instead here I am where paperwork is God, and laughter is optional. Everyone is so worried about not making anyone feel like there are winners and losers. (Guess what honey there are!) I have no problem taking a little criticism. Except when someone thinks that because I am honest, it means i don't care.
Why is it that no one ever says the positive things? When was the last time someone called your boss to extol your virtues? Why are we surprised when kind words are exchanged? When did negative become the norm? Why is that that all it takes is one unhappy parent to outweigh the 10 that were thrilled with everything you did?
I know that this is indeed the way of the world, and I shouldn't take it so personally. Maybe I wouldn't if I didn't feel in jeopardy. If I didn't feel that the whole world hears one negative comment.
We are so busy saying niceties to everyone's face that we only have venom to expel behind their back.
I am making a new movement. Say truthful if not painful things to people's faces and every once in a while go to someone's boss and say a few kind words.
It might make all the difference.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Finding the End
Today I find myself in the typical throws of torn emotion that is felt only on the final day of school. It is a feeling that few understand. Most jobs do not consist of trying to forge the most personal bond possible only to 10 months later send them on their way. Each of my students is unique, special, and quite frankly exhausting.
It has been a killer year, if you asked anyone in my building who had the most difficult class the answer would be unanimous. I decided a long time ago that if you are going to have a tough group, you want it to be the worst. Sympathy can be an amazing thing, no one ever cancelled my prep period and everyone was always willing to help me out. I am not sure if my colleagues will ever understand how much assistance they have been to me this year, how I couldn't make it without them.
Regardless of the challenges I have faced this year I find myself torn at their loss. Despite the fact that I have spent nearly this entire year fighting a migraine I will miss these children. I am sure that I will, eventually.
I have equated this class to being gasoline, water, and alcohol. Each needed and wonderful in their own way, but spending so much time in a closed container as been an exercise in the prevention of combustion. Most days were spent in the pursuit of maintaining some form of sanity.
For today I will try to make it through the day, try to get all those loose ends wrapped together. Try and repair the frayed edges.
I will watch them leave wondering if I made any difference at all. Will they remember anything other then the fact that they were always in trouble? Is it possible that despite my constant attempt to maintain control they knew that I cared for them? Time will tell, and honestly I will probably never know.
But for today I have just a few words for them.
Get out
Be Gone
Goodbye
Hasta Luego
Aloha
Scoot
Skedaddle
Mosey Along
Shoo
Run Along
Go Go Go....
I will miss you.....
It has been a killer year, if you asked anyone in my building who had the most difficult class the answer would be unanimous. I decided a long time ago that if you are going to have a tough group, you want it to be the worst. Sympathy can be an amazing thing, no one ever cancelled my prep period and everyone was always willing to help me out. I am not sure if my colleagues will ever understand how much assistance they have been to me this year, how I couldn't make it without them.
Regardless of the challenges I have faced this year I find myself torn at their loss. Despite the fact that I have spent nearly this entire year fighting a migraine I will miss these children. I am sure that I will, eventually.
I have equated this class to being gasoline, water, and alcohol. Each needed and wonderful in their own way, but spending so much time in a closed container as been an exercise in the prevention of combustion. Most days were spent in the pursuit of maintaining some form of sanity.
For today I will try to make it through the day, try to get all those loose ends wrapped together. Try and repair the frayed edges.
I will watch them leave wondering if I made any difference at all. Will they remember anything other then the fact that they were always in trouble? Is it possible that despite my constant attempt to maintain control they knew that I cared for them? Time will tell, and honestly I will probably never know.
But for today I have just a few words for them.
Get out
Be Gone
Goodbye
Hasta Luego
Aloha
Scoot
Skedaddle
Mosey Along
Shoo
Run Along
Go Go Go....
I will miss you.....
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Kids are a gift
So today I had a thought as I looked at my class. Each one is someone's daughter or son, not because of their birth (but that did have something to do with it) but because they are loved. By virtue of belonging to someone they have identity. My heart goes out to those that do not have such a family. The foster children, the children desperately looking fore a permanent family.
As you follow my blog you will find that I find humor or perhaps irony or just stupidity it a variety of places, not the least of which is anything to do with my students, but celebrity news is one of my favorites as well.
Today as I neglected to work on my report cards I read an article online about how our beloved Madonna (the singer not the Holy Mother) has "finally been approved to adopt little Mercy."
It brings questions to my mind.
If celebrities are constantly telling me how to "Go Green, Buy Local." or "Think Globally, Act Locally." Why is she buying a child 5,000 miles away?
Wasn't there any locally produced children that were up to her standards? Was it really gas efficient to travel to another continent? Were there no beautiful four year olds anywhere in these United States? Children are not tropical fruits, they grow anywhere. We don't need to import them from other nations.
As you follow my blog you will find that I find humor or perhaps irony or just stupidity it a variety of places, not the least of which is anything to do with my students, but celebrity news is one of my favorites as well.
Today as I neglected to work on my report cards I read an article online about how our beloved Madonna (the singer not the Holy Mother) has "finally been approved to adopt little Mercy."
It brings questions to my mind.
If celebrities are constantly telling me how to "Go Green, Buy Local." or "Think Globally, Act Locally." Why is she buying a child 5,000 miles away?
Wasn't there any locally produced children that were up to her standards? Was it really gas efficient to travel to another continent? Were there no beautiful four year olds anywhere in these United States? Children are not tropical fruits, they grow anywhere. We don't need to import them from other nations.
Don't Make Me Use My Teacher Voice
This is my very first post on this blog. I hope that eventually it will speak to all of those who understand the humor of teaching, or of children, or of other inconsequentials. Just a place to post my passing fancies....
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